


A Place to Call Home

by Squishy_Sheep



Series: Of Their Own [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crack, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-03-29 02:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3878860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squishy_Sheep/pseuds/Squishy_Sheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Renly's apartment burns down, he enlists Loras' help to regain his independence from his brother. Things don't go the way he planned. Duh. Modern Day AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who looks at my work! I hope it amuses you. This piece is dedicated to my dear friend Sam.

“Do you want popcorn?”

“Well obviously, if we're going to watch a movie.”

Loras raised his eyebrows and grinned, embarrassed. Blushing, he shuffled into the kitchen.

“What?” called Renly from the couch. “Why are you blushing?” he probed, smiling to himself. He heard cabinets open and close. 

“Where do you keep it?” Loras asked without replying.

“Above the sink,” Renly told him. He was lounging on the sofa, feet up and arm slung over the back. His other hand held a beer, which he brought to his mouth and sipped as he waited for Loras to reappear. From the kitchen the sounds of beeping told him the microwave was set. Loras came back into the sitting room, still smiling mischievously. “What?” asked Renly again.

“Well,” Loras said slowly, letting the the sounds roll over his tongue, “if I'd actually wanted to watch a movie, I would have invited you over to my place.”

Comprehension dawned as Loras swung one slender leg over to straddle him. Groins rubbing, he leaned down for a kiss. Renly opened his mouth welcomingly, squeezing the bottle in his hand appreciatively. He tried to set the beer on the table without tearing his gaze away, but missed and the drink dropped to the floor with a bang. “Leave it,” his lover implored, grasping his chin as the amber liquid soaked into the rug. 

After they'd had their fill of kissing, Loras lifted up the hem of Renly's shirt and bent his head to tease his nipple between his teeth. “Your chest needs shaving again,” Loras rasped between pants.

“Hmmm,” Renly sighed in agreement, but upon further reflection, his eyes snapped open and he grimaced. He did not, in all technicality, actually enjoy being as hairless as a 13 year old boy, but he would do it if that was how his boyfriend liked him. 

Over the top of Loras' bobbing head, Renly's eyes alighted on the clock hanging on the hall. “Hey, Loras, how long did you put that popcorn in for?”

“Nnt-” tutted Loras in annoyed disapproval. “Two minutes,” he replied, hoping a straight answer was the quickest route back to sexy time. 

“Well it's been, like, 10 minutes,” Renly worried.

Loras sighed and abandoned the nipple he had been working on to look him in the face. “It probably went off ages ago and we didn't notice,” he said in that assured and slightly condescending tone he so often assumed. He slid backward off Renly's lap, giving himself room to lean down. “Let it burn,” he concluded, although by then his voice was muffled by the wad of pant he had taken into his mouth.

Renly might have retorted, but at that moment every coherent thought was swiftly exiting stage left as Loras began to get really passionate about the contents of his trousers. He nuzzled the bulge and then began to rub it with his mouth, opening his lips wide and panting so that Renly could feel his hot, moist breath through the denim. He growled hungrily when he felt the flesh beneath begin to stiffen. 

“Take your pants off,” Renly told him between gasps, tugging at the hem but not having a long enough reach to pull them down. Loras, of course, had hardened some time ago. Renly could see the enticing bump hovering just a few inches off the couch, swaying slightly as Loras oscillated his hips in time with the humming noises he was making into Renly's damp crotch. He never did understand how Loras managed to hold that for so long without it becoming painful.

Obliging the request, Loras reach under himself and flicked open his fly. That glimpse of dark pink was all it took to push Renly into a whole new level of turned on. Groaning, he gently pried Loras' face away so he could undo his own. Once he got the button undone and the zipper down, he took his hands away and shuddered at the first brush of lips on skin. Rather than stare at the ceiling, he shut his eyes, laid back, and thought of Westeros.

\----

Two hours later found them having contented after-snuggles on Renly's bed. The older man was hugging the younger to his chest, their feet tangled in the sheets. He looked down at his consort and stroked his cheek gently with one finger. The finger of the hand that wasn't trapped under his precious head and quickly going numb, that was. He smiled at the way the light played across his fine features and swept a lock of brown curls out of his eye. The dimmer on the lamp made the picture almost perfect. . . Gingerly he picked up a stray condom that was lying near his head and tossed it away. There. Now the image was perfect.

Suddenly the serene moment was broken by the most horrible, spine-chilling noise Renly had ever heard. First there was a beep, followed by a screech, followed by more sounds that got progressively higher-pitched and more distorted until they culminated in a single terrible siren that was cut off by a bang! And then silence. Loras' eyes flew open and his body lurched in terror. Renly threw himself flat over his lover protectively and stared at the door as if he expected some sort of homicidal maniac to come barging through it. When the silence fell, both men froze and shifted their eyes from side to side, trying to see what was happening while holding to the firm belief that whatever it was wouldn't notice them if they kept absolutely still. 

A funny smell tickled Renly's nose. Loras sniffed, then sniffed again. “Something's burning,” he stated.

Renly started to answer but sucked his breath back in when he saw the faint wisps of black smoke creeping into the hallway, coming closer and closer to them like the fingers of a slowly unfurling hand. “That popcorn. . . you didn't put in 2-0-0, did you?”

Loras crinkled his nose. “Maybe?”

The fire alarm went off. It was more than the popcorn that was burning.


	2. Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A plan is hatched.

Loras nudged his sister discreetly. “Hey, could you cover for me tonight if I snuck out?” he whispered. 

Margaery rolled her eyes and bellowed at the top of her lungs: “MOM! LORAS WANTS TO GO OUT WITH HIS BOYFRIEND TONIGHT!”

“Margaery!” Loras shrieked.

“Oh,” came their mother's reply, muffled by the entire flight of stairs that separated them, “Tell him that's fine.”

She looked triumphantly at her brother.

“Tell him to use protection!”

Loras groaned in horror and slunk away.

Back in his own bedroom, which was much more fabulous than Margaery's might he add, he picked up his phone to text Renly. His room was a neat beige with tasteful red/brown accents decorated with modernist paintings from his artist friends. Her room was messy and littered with strange female products and had pictures of hot guys taped all over the walls. Sometimes when he walked into her room he didn't even notice her, the way she hunched over her computer with her legs drawn up and stuffed into her huge baggy sweatshirt (what kind of sane person buys sweaters that are too large on purpose?), she blended right in with the huge mounds of unfolded laundry lying around. “Wanna hang out 2nite?” he texted.

A moment later he heard his phone ringing. He answered with a “Hey babe,” knowing it would be Renly.

“Loras!” responded a panicked voice, “You've gotta help me!”

“What?” He couldn't really hear him past the various screeches and crashes he could hear in the background.

“I am stuck at my brother's house,” Renly said slowly and clearly. “And these children are driving me up the wall!” he screamed.

Loras slapped himself lightly in the face. “Do you need me to help babysit?” he asked wearily.

“No,” Renly told him to his relief. “I need you to help me find a new apartment!”

“Really?” Loras asked dumbly. “Can't you just get one near your old place?”

“That's not the problem- GET OFF OF MY LEG. . . sorry.” There was a clang and some crying, then silence as Renly barricaded himself in the washroom, alone at last. “My brother won't pay for another apartment. He says I've already fucked up once.”

“And what do you want me to do about that?” mused Loras, examining his fingernails.

“Well, I was thinking, you could get an apartment, and I could move in!”

Loras frowned and switched ears. “I'm sorry, did I hear you right? You want ME to get an apartment?”

“You're 18, aren't you? You're going to move out soon anyway.”

Loras twitched. There were so many reasons why this idea wasn't even worth considering, he didn't know where to start. 

“. . . You ARE 18, right? Oh god, please tell me I haven't been sleeping with a minor-”

“I'm 18!” Loras insisted, slightly hurt. He sighed. “I don't know. At the very least, my parents aren't going to let me move out until school's over.” Even if he wanted to.

“Well, that's in a few months.”

“Your apartment will be repaired in a few months,” Loras pointed out.

“No! Well, I suppose so, but my brother is letting it go. He says he doesn't trust me to live alone anymore. But I do have at least some money of my own, enough for a few month's rent at least, until you go to university and move out and your parents can start paying for it.”

“And why would I need my own apartment if that apartment is going to be in the same city as where my parents live?” 

“Because your parents are filthy rich and you can.” 

Loras couldn't argue with that one. 

He sighed balefully. “Look, do you want to see me tonight, or not?” They hadn't seen each other since the fire, and Loras could only hope Renly's ass was missing his dick as much as his dick was missing Renly's ass.

“Of course I want to see you,” Renly crooned. “I'll come over there. Or do you want to go out?”

“We can't have sex in a movie theatre,” Loras pointed out, “And we can't have sex with my parents listening either.”

“Oh, and here I thought you were missing my company. Well, we can't have sex with the brats watching, so there.”

“We can close the door?”

“They'd open the door. . . but then again, I can hardly be blamed for that, can I? Come over if think you can handle them. I'll text you the address.”

\---

Half an hour, someone knocked at the Baratheon's door and the children went wild. Seriously, they were like barking dogs, those children. 

“When you said you were staying at your brother's,” Loras said when Renly opened the door, “I assumed you meant Robert's.”

“Why?”

“Because Robert is the one with a million wild children.” Loras looked very concerned. “Stannis only has the one, and I thought she was an angel!”

Renly's eyes looked blank and vacant, as if his mind had just collapsed in on itself. “That's what she wants you to think,” he whispered. 

The entrance hall was huge. It looked as if the walls were buttressed in real marble columns. Some old flag hung on the wall, protected by a layer of glass. It was yellow and black and had one of those strangely drawn deer on it that looked as if it were dancing on its hind legs. It must be their family crest. _Yikes,_ thought Loras to himself, _I knew they were old nobility, but I didn't realize they were this well off. . . he's got some nerve calling me filthy rich!_

Music was being blared somewhere deep within the mansion. Loras couldn't tell from where; all the rooms beyond the hall were dark and gloomy. None of the lights were on. “Is Stannis not here?”

“No, he's on a business trip.”

“Are you supposed to be watching the kids?”

“No, god knows there's enough butlers and maids and who knows what other servants lurking about to do that. They just like to harass me, and to make things worse, it's the nanny's night off. But I've bribed them to stay in the basement. . . for now. I'm still not promising they won't barge in on us.”

Loras felt willing to risk it. It was actually kind of exciting. He reached out to hold Renly's hand as they ascended the eastern staircase in darkness. “Who is “they” anyway?” he asked, unable to keep the playfulness out of his voice. 

“Shireen and Edric live here all of the time, and if they weren't bad enough, there's always at least. . . oh, I'd say . . . two or three other nephews or nieces running about.”

“Is visiting jolly uncle Stannis really that appealing?”

Renly snorted. “We take them because Robert is too much of a drunk and an oaf to look after his own brood. . . but enough talking about my family.” They'd reached Renly's room. He shut the door behind them. “I was hoping you would take my mind off of them for awhile.”

“I can do that,” Loras whispered through his smile, leaning in for a kiss. They closed their eyes and pressed their lips together tenderly. When Loras opened his eyes, Renly's were still closed, leaning his forehead on his shoulder and breathing in his scent. For the first time, Loras noticed the room they were in. He laughed. “What an adult space you have here,” he said sarcastically.

The walls were light blue, and the room was furnished with a twin bed and a child-sized desk. Renly's clothes didn't all fit in the closet, so most of them were sitting on the floor in bags. “Hey! Don't poke fun at me, I took everything good with me when I moved out.”

“So nothing survived the fire at all, then?”

“Nope.”

“But I can see that your clothes did.”

“Nope, not even them. Everything that wasn't on fire smelled of smoke.”

“Then, what are you wearing?”

“Oh, you know, not all my clothes fit in my apartment, so I kept some here.”

Loras looked around the room incredulously. “All of these!?”

“Yeah, I was surprised too at how much I found when I started looking through the closet. Oh, speaking of which, look what else I found!” Grinning, Renly went over to the old tv sitting in the corner and waved an old supernintendo at him, cords dangling off it. “We can play Donkey Kong!”

Loras sighed and went over to him. “I don't want to play Donkey Kong,” he said as he put his arms around his waist, trying to achieve some sexy-pout inflection.

“Mmm, some donkey bonking, then?” Renly suggested, thrusting his hips forward to rub against his boyfriend's.

“That sounds much better.” Loras spun him around and shoved him roughly towards the bed. They collapsed on it in a tangled heap. Loras forced his knee between Renly's legs and they opened for him willingly. Loras groaned with satisfaction as he felt the familiar embrace of his thighs.

Renly smiled and sat up, reaching for the quickly stiffening package hidden under Loras' jeans. “You've been eager for this,” he noted, checking its progress with his fingers. Loras groaned even louder at the sensation, pressing into the touch and rubbing against it, eager for some friction. Renly couldn't help but find his impatience a bit funny, but managed to keep his giggles to himself. He undid the fly, releasing the eager flesh beneath. He took hold of it and began to massage it into full stiffness.

It didn't take very long.

Loras bent down to cover Renly's stomach in lustful kisses. He swirled his tongue around Renly's bellybutton. “You're so hot,” he muttered.

Renly cocked his head. “What?”

“I said you're so hot!”

“Oh.”

Renly let his fingers play with the hair around the nape of Loras' neck, gently tickling his earlobe. Loras' breathing was growing ever heavier. Between pants, he slowly kissed and licked his way down Renly's abdomen. At least it seemed like he was, but then somehow he was back at Renly's bellybutton. _For pete's sake._ Renly curled his fingers in his hair and roughly pushed his head lower. Finally, Loras unclipped his belt and tugged his pant down.

“. . . oh, come on! You're not even hard yet!”

“I'll get there,” Renly promised.

At long last, Loras took him into his mouth. Renly sighed in pleasure at the soft, wet caress. The softness shortly yielded to earnest sucking, and before long both their swords were fully drawn. 

Not wanting to prolong the foreplay any longer than necessary, Loras grasped Renly by the hips and pulled them out from under him, once again toppling the older man onto his back. Now he was right where he wanted him. Loras' attention was turned to his exposed rear. He began to sink his fingers in one by one.

Was that pounding coming from the hallway just now, or was it Renly kicking the bedframe?

They were getting noisy now, thoroughly caught up in their own affairs. Renly was groaning loudly and thrusting his hips, making the mattress creak. Actually, he seemed a bit too into it, but Loras was too busy encouraging him with sexy talk to notice. 

More thumps came from the hallway. A whole heard of little stags was running up and down the stairs, hoof beats clapping like thunder. The thundermakers got closer and closer to their love nest, then suddenly the noises stopped. 

Renly threw his head back and roared when their two bodies were finally brought together. Loras slapped his thigh as if in victory and raked his nails across the long stretch of smooth skin, causing him to yell again.

The pounding of the floorboards resumed. The herd was on the move. They galloped back down the stairs and disappeared from hearing. Renly registered this on some vague level.

Their struggling continued. Their writhed about in blind lust, their need to cling to each other only paralleled by their need to draw apart, only to crash back together again in a bed-creaking cacophony. Loras growled and nuzzled his lover protectively, his face twisted in a pleasure so intense it looked like agony as he delivered his powerful strokes. 

Renly felt his partner nearing his peak. Overpowering the hand holding onto his thigh, be brought his legs up and rocked his hips back, changing the angle of penetration. Over the sound of Loras' shriek, he thought he heard something beyond the door. He covered Loras' mouth with a hand, which was rewarded with a vicious bite. Yes, he could just make out faint giggles. 

At first he thought _They're not listening in on this, are they?,_ and then he was suddenly clenched by a terrible feeling. They were going to open the door, he just knew it. He barely had a second to throw a sheet over a confused Loras before a boy shouted “Now!” and the door flew inward.

Framed in the doorway were no less than five dark haired children. As if on queue, they rushed into the room. Each and every one of them was carrying a bucket full of water, but that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was their maniacal expressions, those horribly mischievous satan-smiles lighting up their faces in so much sadistic glee. Renly shut his eyes and braced himself. 

The tidal wave of freezing water did not diminish in unpleasantness at all in light of its expectedness. 

Renly just grimaced but Loras, who was both not facing the door and had his head covered in a sheet, screamed in surprise and outrage. The children disappeared as quickly as they had come, superceded by the echoes of a malestorm of evil laughter. 

Frozen in place, Loras slowly raised his eyes to meet Renly's gaze. They looked at each other for a long moment, their hard-ons awkwardly still present but distinctly no longer in the mood to fraternize. “Did they . . . really. . . just do that?” gasped Loras.

“Yes,” Renly squeezed his eyes tight in embarrassment. “And the worst thing is, I'm not surprised,” he squeaked. Put a few of those menaces in the same place, and they'd give each other the courage to do just about anything.

“And there's nothing you could have done to stop them?” Loras asked incredulously.

“I told you so before.”

“That's it,” Loras declared. “You're moving out!”


	3. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search begins.

Renly was getting used to sleeping with his feet hanging off the end of the bed, riffling through piles of clothes every morning, and having to wait his turn for the washroom (seriously, this house was huge, why did they only have one bathroom down this hall?). He was even getting used to being quiet late at night while the children were asleep, a favour which was not returned on Saturday mornings when he wanted to sleep in. But the worst thing about this arrangement was that he was significantly farther away from work than he used to be. Perhaps he should quit. It was only a retail job at a really chic men's wear shop downtown after all. It had been fun when he lived a hop, skip, and a jump away, but the family mansion was like. . . in the country, and now he had to like. . . get up early and drive to work.

And it's not like they paid him a lot anyway. Not enough to afford a nice place to live on his own without Stannis' help. And speaking of Stannis, what was with buying him a car worth the same as 10 years rent and still refusing to pay for another apartment! Arg! If he was stuck being dependent on his older brother, he might as well give up all pretensions and stop working all together. He'd even thought about selling the car and living off of that, but no, Stannis had bought it in his own name, so Renly couldn't even do that.

When he realized he was honestly considering giving up his awesome job that let him pick out colour-coordinating pocket squares and bow ties all day, he knew it was time to move back into town. He'd been putting it off out of pure laziness, but Loras was free this Saturday to look at places and they were both eager to find their own space. 

After fighting off Shireen's and Edric's attempts to drive him out of bed at 6:00 in the morning with a strategically placed frying pan to the head, he caught a few more hours' shut-eye while they were watching cartoons and dragged himself out of bed at 10:00. 

Stannis was away on a business trip (again), so they were taking advantage of the opportunity to use the big TV in the main room instead of the basement. Renly poked his head in on the way to the kitchen. They were watching the strange show about the talking dog and the boy with blue shorts and no neck. In this week's episode, the boy with the blue shorts was being sexually harassed by talking purple cloud.

Man, cartoons these days were as fucked up as the children who watched them.

The kitchen was empty but for a single solitary boy. He had dark hair like the rest of them, but his eyes were an especially piercing shade of blue. He was a pretty fine looking boy, kind of like what Renly had looked like at that age. The boy wasn't necessarily too old for cartoons, but Gendry had always been the silent loner type, not one to watch cartoons or run about the house with underwear on his head or break into his uncle's room while he's having sex and throw cold water at him. Yeah, Gendry was pretty much his favourite nephew at the moment.

Renly poured a bowl of cereal just because the box just so happened to be on the counter, and sat down at the breakfast bar next to him. They sat in silence for a minute, serenaded by the crunches of each others' chewing.

“So, what are you doing today?” Renly asked to break the silence.

Gendry looked at him out of the corner of his eye for a long moment. “Nothin',” he finally answered, mouth still full.

“Ah. Just, hanging out here then?” Renly smiled, trying to encourage the boy to speak. 

He didn't. 

Renly smiled wider. “It's better than home, I suppose.” Renly knew for a fact that Gendry's mother worked evenings at a bar and had some douchey boyfriend nobody liked.

Without replying, Gendry slid his bowl further down the counter. It made a loud and obvious screeching noise of porcelain on granite as he did. Renly's eye twitched, a dumb smile still plastered across his face. Then Gendry pulled his chair over to meet his bowl, hunkered down, and kept eating.

Yeah, Gendry was pretty much his least favourite nephew at the moment.

\---

“What is that?” Loras demanded through the open window as Renly pulled to a stop. 

He had been waiting by the curb in front of the first building they were going to check out. It was a hot august day, so he was wearing a pair of rather short, rather tight shorts and held a slurpie in one hand. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that the shorts were yellow and his t-shirt was striped in green and his sunglasses were bright cherry red. Renly tried not to judge Loras on his fashion choices. Sometimes, it was hard.

“. . . A car?” guessed Renly, not knowing what else he could be talking about.

“It's an Alpha Romeo.”

Renly shrugged as he stepped out of the car. It wasn't as if he had chosen it himself or had any say whatsoever in its purchase, so he hadn't paid that much attention.

“Stannis bought you this?” Loras continued, peering through the window to ogle the luxurious interior. 

“Yeah, for driving to work.”

Loras dragged his eyes away from the car. “I don't want to be late for our viewing- but we are so having sex in there later.”

Renly smiled to himself as they slipped into the cool lobby. Who'd have thought Stannis would pick out such a sexy ride?

The met the smiling landlady inside. She was a happy looking middle-aged lady in a pink suit. She looked them over approvingly as they shook hands and said their hellos. Renly hoped they looked like a young but wealthy gay couple, because that was exactly what they were and exactly the type of people who would be great tenants. 

It occurred to Renly as they got in the elevator that there might be a lot of competition for these places. It was right downtown, after all. Maybe the landlady would prefer someone more reliable. . . aka, someone who wasn't so young and actually had a job instead of an older brother. He checked himself out in the mirrored wall as they rode up. He was decked out in designer attire, top to bottom, from the sunglasses tucked into his collar to his shoes. Anyone with an eye for money would be able to tell how rich he was, he reassured himself. He hoped the landlady had noticed his car.

He glanced at Loras through the corner of his eye. It was a good thing he had taste enough for the both of them, Renly told himself, because no one in their right minds would ever lease a high-end apartment to _that._

“Well, here we are!” she said cheerfully as they reached the 10th floor. They waited patiently as she flipped through the keys on her ring. Finally, the door was opened.

It was a nice place. It had an open-concept living room and kitchen, with huge windows lining one wall. Renly admired the panoramic view of the city as the landlady babbled something about square footage and counter tops. “The walls are a strange colour,” Loras muttered, sidling up behind him.

Renly hadn't noticed the walls. They were a kind of green-blue. “It's not too bad.”

“It'll be hard to find furniture that matches.”

Renly shrugged. “Looking might be fun.”

“As you can see, it's not furnished,” chirped the landlady, “But all the appliances you see are included.”

Renly turned his attention to the kitchen. It boosted a large fridge, a 6-burner stove and double oven he would never use, and a microwave built into the wall. Renly nudged Loras in the ribs. “Hey, do the buttons look too complicated for you?”

“Oh~,” Loras growled, slapping him angrily, “Let it go, will you?”

“Is everything alright?” asked the landlady, alarmed.

Renly beamed at her. “Yes. Can we see the bedroom?”

“Of course, it's right down this hall.”

It was a pretty normal bedroom. You know, four walls, a window, a closet. “You know, we're going to need more room than before if we're both going to live here,” mused Loras. 

Renly raised an eyebrow. “So?”

“I'm just saying, it would be nice if the closet was a walk-in.”

They finished the short tour and went back downstairs. Renly had no strong feelings about the place one way or another. It was just an apartment. The main thing was that it was downtown. Hell, his last place had been the first place they'd looked at. Stannis had come with him, and once they'd seen it, he'd demanded: “So, is there anything wrong with it?” to which Renly had replied: “No, I guess not,” and that had been that.

“So, what did you think?” enquired the landlady brightly once they were back in the lobby. 

“Ah, it was nice.”

“Ah huh?” she smiled encouragingly, “Do you want to take a look at the contract?”

“Uh, I think we need a bit of time to talk about it,” Loras told her.

“Well, okay,” said the landlady, “but I do have a few others who are interested in this unit. Email me when you've decided, but don't wait too long!”

\---

“Dude, that lady was so eyeballing us the entire time we were in there!” burst Loras as soon as the door slid shut behind them.

Renly laughed. “We're hot and we're gay, why wouldn't she stare?”

“It's true; I'd stare at me too, if I wasn't already me. Hell, I do stare at me sometimes.”

“. . . what?”

“Oh, but no way could I ever live there. Did you see all those windows! I felt exposed just standing there; anyone could have been looking in on us.” He gasped. “And what if we were getting it on and some bloke across the street just looked up and saw us!”

“I think the windows are tinted.”

“And besides, the walls were a weird colour! Let's not live there,” he begged.

Renly looked at the boy clutching his arm, giving him puppy dog eyes. Renly was suddenly struck by how young he was. It was easy to forget someone was only 18 when they were tearing off your clothes with their teeth and preparing to fuck you silly. But right now, Loras was just a nervous looking kid in yellow shorts holding a slurpie, being pressured into moving out of his parents' house by an older man.

Actually, it had been Loras pressuring _him._

ever since that incident with the water buckets, but nevertheless.

Renly felt bad, and a bit responsible. He smiled and put his arm around him. “Hey, whatever you want. I don't care where we live, as long as you're happy with it. . . and it's downtown,” he added.

They had two more viewings lined up for that day. The second place apparently had a “low ceiling,” and the third place was up too high. 

“It's an amazing view,” Renly had said.

“But what if they elevator breaks?” Loras had demanded hysterically. “I don't want to have to walk up 21 flights of stairs!”

“There's more than one elevator. And besides, for the amount that we'd be paying for that place, they better as hell keep things in good repair.”

But Loras would have none of it. “What is there's a fire?” he'd challenged.

Renly was stymied. He was about to say “As if that would ever happen,” but remembered just in time, and stopped himself. 

Oh, and he hadn't liked the colour of any of them. 

Now they were sitting in a cafe, sipping latte's and having a late lunch. Renly people watched out the window as he considered the three apartments they'd seen. To be honest, they all seemed fine to him. In fact, he almost wished they hadn't bothered looking at three, because now they had to pick between them.

“I kinda liked the first one. The windows were really cool, and I'm sure you'll get used to them. But the bedroom in the third one was the biggest, and it had a walk in closest like you wanted. Oh, but the bedroom in the second was funky, with the slanted ceiling and the balcony. But if we decided on that one we should phone the landlord right away, because it sounded like units in that building went really fast.”

Loras drummed his fingers against his cup. “We did just start looking.” 

“So?” Renly took a long sip. “An apartment is an apartment. So long as it's downtown, that's the only thing that really matters. They were all fine.”

Loras scowled. “Well I didn't think they were fine.”

Renly laughed. “It's just the colour, Loras. No place is going to be perfect. It's just an apartment, it's not like we'll be there forever.”

“It was not just the colour and you know it!” Loras fumed. “Those windows in the first one were freaky and the one had the tiny tub and a weird stove and the other had that nasty guy for a landlord. Can't we just keep looking?”

Renly thought Loras was being silly, but he didn't want to force him to live in a place if he really didn't want to. And it's not like he'd had his heart set on any of them. “Well,” he yielded, smirking to himself, “we can't move into a place with a stove you couldn't control properly, that much is true.”

Loras slammed his fist down on the table, clattering their spoons. “Really?” he growled.

Renly chuckled but had the decency to blush a bit in shame. “I'm just teasing- hey come on, I'm sorry, we'll keep looking!” Loras had huffed to his feet.

“Drive me home,” he muttered darkly as he stormed past him. 

Without understanding what had made his boyfriend so touchy, Renly got up to follow. 

They got into his car and Renly pulled away. He couldn't help but notice that Loras stroked the leather seat every now and then, and took deep breaths to soak in the new car smell. Grinning, Renly revved the engine a bit and took off as soon as the light turned green, accelerating quickly down the street. Loras was pressed back into his seat but he smiled just a little bit. “Are you sure you don't want to go for a ride?” Renly asked.

Loras grinned with him but shook his head. “It will be funner when I'm in the mood.”

“Will you be in the mood tomorrow?”

Loras' eyes flicked to the back seat for the briefest of moments. “Maybe.”

“Good.” 

Loras lived somewhere between downtown and the suburbs. It was a big house- pretty much as big as you could get and still be within the city, but it was no mansion like the Baratheon residence. To build a house that big, Renly's parents had been forced to move to the countryside just outside the city. Loras' home was more of a town house, stretching up into the sky as opposed to outwards, cozied up wall to wall with it's neighbours, and surrounded by a small wrought iron fence instead of expansive lawns. Of course, they had like, three summer houses to make up for the deficiency. 

Renly pulled up in front of it and Loras hoped out immediately. “Go,” he told Renly, looking nervously up at the house. 

“Why?” asked Renly peering at the house. Nothing was moving.

“I told my parents I was out with some school friends.”

“Why'd you tell them that?”

“I- It doesn't matter, just go before they see you and your obnoxious car and I have to make up a story about who you are.”

“Make up a story? Why can't you just tell them who I am?”

“I can't just tell them!”

“But why?”

“I'll tell you later, just go.” Loras cut the conversation off by going into the house. Renly had half a mind to knock on the door and introduce himself to his parents, but decided against it. Let Loras give his excuses. Maybe one of them would be legitimate. 

Shaking his head, Renly drove away. It had been a long and confusing day.


	4. Part 2.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wonder who that is?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to Sam and all the other AryaxGendry fans.

Renly stumbled through the door feeling somehow exhausted. In the living room, the kids had switched from watching TV to playing videogames. He could hear the sounds of clashing swords and screaming men from a mile away. It was one of those games that connected to the internet, he thought. It was hard to tell as all he could see on the screen was blood gushing everywhere. Jeez, since when were videogames so graphic? What happened to the good old days when Mario touched the kappa and his body just fell off the screen?

“I don't know who you are, Nymeria999, but I swear to god I will destroy you!!!” Shireen was yelling at the screen again. Edric didn't seem to be around. Too tired to climb the stairs without a moment's recuperation, Renly collapsed onto the couch. He watched the television dully, not really caring about what he was seeing. Shireen's excitement had driven her off the couch and onto her knees in front of the screen, the proximity to the action somehow adding to the adrenaline rush. She growled as she jabbed madly at the buttons, her face contorted in frustration and concentration. It was a rare sight, actually. Shireen didn't usually lose.

Between the shouting coming from the game and the shouting coming from his niece, Renly didn't notice his nephew slip up behind him shyly. 

“Who's that you're fighting?” Gendry asked, speaking loudly to cutting through the noise.

Shireen glanced over her shoulder, probably as confused as Renly was by the strange question from the usually silent boy. “Uh, just somebody on Xbox Live. . . why?”

“Nymeria999, that's what you said, isn't it?”

“That's their username, but I don't know her, Gendry. Why do you care?”

“Can you see her profile?”

“What?” Shireen was distracted by the ongoing game.

“Does it tell you any information about her besides her username? Like where she lives?”

“Jesus Gendry!” Shireen was definitely irritated now. “I'm trying to play!”

Gendry scowled. “Fine.” He was about to turn and stomp away, but Renly stopped him with a pluck at his sleeve. The boy jumped as if he hadn't even noticed his uncle was there.

“Just wait until this round is over,” Renly suggested.

Gendry must have really wanted to know who this mystery gamer was, because he actually relented and sat down to wait (though not before giving a bullish snort of protest). Renly studied the boy for clues that might explain his odd behaviour, but he sat stonily with his arms crossed over his chest, staring straight ahead at the TV with no expression save an impatient clenching of the jaw.

Renly still did not comprehend the figures and glowing boxes that flashed across the screen, but eventually a loud whoop of joy signalled the end of the match. Shireen jumped to her feet laughing and clapped a few times in girlish glee. 

“Did you win?” asked Renly.

“Obviously,” muttered Gendry.

Shireen looked over her shoulder and huffed to see her cousin still sitting there. More boxes and menus flashed by. “Winning streak unbroken,” she congratulated herself quietly. 

“Here,” she said lazily as she pulled up another screen. 

Gendry leaned forward to read the small writing splashed across the screen.

“How did you know it was a girl?” asked Shireen as her eyes flashed over the user's specs.

Gendry didn't answer.

“Her location is. . . here. Isn't that strange?” She turned around. “She lives in King's Landing, just like us. Gendry, do you know her?”

“I don't know,” he said, and then he got up and left.

Shireen shrugged and went back to playing. Renly blinked. What a strange exchange that had been.


	5. Part Three

The back seat of the leathery, ostentatious Alpha Romeo, as it turned out, was a really good place to get turned on but, a very dissatisfactory place to actually get it on. Actually, scratch that, it wasn't even a very good place to get turned on. Most of the turning on had happened in the front seat, while they were rocketing down scenic country lanes at about twice the legal speed limit, giddy on the sheer amount of horse power bridled in a flick of his hand a tap of his foot. Seriously, even if Loras wasn't there he could see himself humping the steering wheel. But Loras was there, and he kept saying that if he was ever going to give him road-head now would be the time, but Renly didn't want to crash and burn and die so he refused and when he looked next Loras was sucking the gear-shift and then Renly had to pull over. . . 

But after that was done with, they'd gone to the back, and well, Renly didn't have anywhere to put his left leg. His right leg was hanging off the side, bracing the ground, and the left was right now hooked over Loras' shoulder, but he wasn't flexible enough to keep it there for much longer. 

Loras ran an appreciative hand down his bare chest, eating him alive with his eyes. “You're so hot,” he told him, biting his lip mischievously as he teased the hair of his treasure trail and twisted it around his finger. Renly groaned and threw his head back as Loras slid his hand past his dick and began to play with his ass and winced as his skull cracked against the hard lacquered wood door handle. 

“You like it right there, don't you? Don't hold back. Oh, you're so hot.” Renly wondered if Loras would be up to experimenting with gags.

“It's a little cramped in here for that, don't you think?” This was a sports car, after all, not a spacey family car. 

“Shh,” Loras commanded, putting a finger over his lips. “Don't talk.” He bent forward to kiss him and Renly yelped as his leg was bent awkwardly.

“Stop,” he implored. 

“What?”

Renly grabbed him gently but firmly by the the neck, pausing a moment to stroke the soft skin right beneath his jaw, and then pushed him backwards. “Get out of the car.”

“What? No. I said I wanted to have sex _in_ the car.”

“Not like this we aren't. There's no room.”

Loras tch-ed. “Where would we go? There's nothing around but corn fields.”

“Then get back in the front.”

“Why?”

“Come on, just do it.”

Sighing, Loras looked wearily out the window to make sure no cars were coming, then jumped out and scuttled as fast as he could back into the passenger seat, hand awkwardly over his crotch. Renly yanked his pants back into position and half-heatedly tried to hold his shirt closed as he followed suit. Swiftly he reached down between Loras' feet and pulled the bar that let the seat slide back, then did the same with the lever that tilted it backward, making Loras giggle. 

The space between the seat and the dashboard wasn't exactly comfortable, but it wasn't so bad once he got down in it on his knees, free at last to turn his attention back to his boyfriend's swollen package. He nuzzled it affectionately before setting into the sucking and licking with earnest. Loras moaned happily and relaxed into the seat. 

“Come up here,” he invited after a little while, patting his thigh to indicate that Renly should straddle him. 

Renly took his dick out of his mouth. “No where to put my knees.”

“But I can't reach you down there,” Loras whined, rubbing his hair to show that that was all he could touch. 

“I'm sated,” he assured him. 

“Trust me to get the boyfriend with no libido,” Loras sniffed derisively. 

“Don't worry, I'm just waiting until I can tear you apart properly.” He bore his teeth and growled playfully. 

“You'd better hurry up and find a bed to fuck me in then.”

\---

Given Loras' penchant for pickiness, Renly figured it would be better to look through listings online so that Loras could point out each apartment's major flaws and rule them out before they bothered to set up a viewing time and go all the way downtown too look at it. One apartment's bathroom was too monotone, and another one was too dark. “It looks like the set of a porn movie,” Loras had said. Renly couldn't even think of one porno that took place in a bathroom. . . then again, they probably did exist. 

Renly put his arms above his head and stretched. His back and neck were getting cramped from sitting against the wall, and his butt was sore too, even though he was sitting on a soft bed. Loras was sitting on the ground with his laptop, tutting away to himself as he scrolled through the listings. 

“Can't we fuck here one night if your parents are out?” he asked. 

“My sister will hear us,” Loras pointed out. “She never leaves the house. Ever.”

“I don't think your sister cares,” Renly retorted. Not judging from the creepy ass smile she had flashed him when they'd arrived. 

Loras didn't bother to deny it, but still didn't seem enthused at the idea of having Renly over for a carnal visit. 

Ah, wait, Loras wasn't even looking at listings anymore. He was looking at college websites. “What're you doing?” Renly asked. 

“Trying to figure out what I want to do next year,” Loras answered with a roll of his eyes. “Look, this school gives you a lot of electives, and the campus is really fancy.”

Renly leaned forward to look. “Yeah, but it's across the sea!”

Loras sniffed. “So?”

Renly bit his tongue, not wanting to point out the obvious. “Won't you just get a job at your father's company anyway?”

“Ha, my “father's” company, more like my grandmother's company. But yeah. I'll inherit half his shares one day. Don't you think a person with that responsibility should at least have a business degree?”

“Yeah,” Renly admitted, “I suppose so.” Stannis had tried to get him to go to a business school, but he'd had no appetite for that kind of work. The Tyrell's owned some kind of agricultural conglomerate, but the Baratheon's had made their fortune in the energy business, and Renly hated the politics of it. Stannis had sworn he would never give Renly a job he wasn't qualified for. At the time, Renly hadn't cared. Maybe that had been a mistake. 

“And you know, it's pretty sweet actually, because every school in the world has a business programme, so I can go anywhere I want.”

“If your marks are high enough.” Even money couldn't buy you a university acceptance. 

“I'm not _that_ stupid,” Loras defended himself. 

“What about UKL?”

“They're okay. . .” Loras looked at him and bit his lip.

Renly sighed. “I'm going to pee,” he said as he got up and left the room. He passed Lady Tyrell on the way to the washroom, who gave him a sideways smile. She was sitting with her Mother-in-law, Loras' grandmother, who turned to see who she was smiling at and gave him a knowing nod as well. They'd probably been talking about him, even if Loras introduced him as his “friend”. Yeah, he really had no idea why Loras kept acting as if his family didn't already know he was a flaming homosexual. 

\---

By the time Renly left to pick up a short shift at work, they had yet to find anything that Loras wanted to check out. Renly got back into his car much more deflated than he had felt that morning. 

He worked from four to eight, because the store was open late on Fridays and Saturdays. When he got there, his co-worker was already helping their single small group of costumers. No one else was in the place. Renly walked around the store straightening things, although there wasn't much to straighten. It wasn't really the kind of store where people left things in disarray. As he wondered close to the two young costumers, he couldn't help but eavesdrop. 

“I like the purple tie,” the dark haired one was saying. “I think it goes with the gray suit.”

“Just go with black,” the ginger one urged him. “It always was your colour.”

The door to the change room opened and a young boy stepped out wearing a white dress shirt and a spanky gray vest. Not big on the colours, this family. 

“The vest fits well,” his co-worker noted, tugging lightly on the shoulders. But the sleeves of the shirt are too short. Let me find you another one.”

Renly eyed the boy's arms. He was right. You could see too much wrist. . . and it was an obvious wrist too. There was some kind of big red mark on it. 

“Brandon, what happened to your wrist?” scolded the dark haired one. 

“Nymeria bit me,” the boy complained. 

Nymeria? Hadn't he heard that name before somewhere? 

“That dog still not listening? Well, I guess it's no wonder, given who's training it.” The boys laughed. “Speaking of Arya, where is she? I thought she was going to come pick out a vest with us.”

“Hiding in the skate park,” the ginger one explained. 

“She's not going to be happy if your mum goes and picks out a dress for her,” the dark-haired one chuckled at the thought. 

The rest of the conversation went in one ear and out the other. Renly was too busy eyeing up the two young men. Pretty fine looking fellows, actually. 

Besides that, the only highlight of the evening was the guys from the catering business across the street swinging buy to offer them the left over sample cake from that evening. They did this pretty often. The cake wouldn't stay fresh for the next day after all, and all the businesses on the street tried to stay friendly with each other. They were kind of like a “wedding strip” where teams of bridesmaids and wedding planners would come to get as much work done in one place as possible, and each store was always eager for the rest to recommend them to the next bride, bridesmaid, or bride's mother (it was never the groom doing this sort of thing) or was wondering where to order their invitations or food or decorations. 

Renly gazed wistfully at his old apartment building as he drove past it on his way home from work. It used to take him five minutes to walk there, now it took him 35 minutes to drive. He really wanted to get another apartment. 

When he finally got home, he looked at his phone and discovered his brother had sent him an email while he was driving. 

Renly,

My trip has been extended. The deal with the Iron Bank is harder to close than I anticipated. Davos and I are giving another presentation tomorrow. Hopefully this will be over soon. Shireen and Edric's school is putting on an art exhibition. You must go in my stead, and tell Shireen I am sorry I cannot be there.  
Please do not burn the house down while I am away.

Stannis. 

Renly had half a mind to email him back and point out that it was not he who set fire in his apartment but a silly little picky butt with no brains but a good tongue who couldn't tell the difference between two minutes and two hours, but didn't want to give Stannis the satisfaction of rising to the bait.

So, an art show, eh? He hadn't heard anyone mention it before. He wondered what Shireen and Edric were putting in it. And how disappointed they would be to learn that Stannis wouldn't be there. Well, he might as well tell them now. He could hear them playing god-knows-what in the main sitting room. 

In fact they were not playing anything, as he found out, but watching a movie. And for once it was something he recognized! It was that superhero movie about Robert Downey Junior. His niece proffered him a bowl of popcorn when he joined them on the couch, but he declined. He still smelled the acrid smoke of thousands of dollars worth of clothes burning every time he looked at it. “So I hear you're going to be in an art show?”

Shireen gave him an oddly guarded look. “Yes.”

“What are you showing?”

“We're doing a piece of performance art!” Edric told him in an over-dramatic voice, leaping to his feet and striking a pose.

“Oh really? That's great. Can I come see it?”

“We'll need all the support we can get,” Edric said sombrely. What a weirdo. 

“My father's not coming, is he?” Shireen asked.

Renly gaped stupidly for a second. “I. . . he really wanted to,” he tried to convince her.

Shireen turned back to the television. “Yeah.”

“He loves you,” Renly cooed, “But he works so hard, and he can't help it when things drag him away-”

“I know,” she cut him off.

“Shireen. . .”

“I know,” she insisted, turning back to look at him. “I know he loves me. I know.”

“Okay. . .” Renly trailed off. He'd tell Stannis to make it up to her when he got back. There wasn't anything much else he could do.


	6. Part Four

Loras picked his way across the muddy field, avoiding rodent holes and wet areas and anything else that might get his pants dirty. He was on his way to meet Renly at the city's swankiest private elementary school. It wasn't far from his house, his house being in the swankiest neighbourhood in town, so he'd decided to walk. He'd gone there himself actually, so it was a familiar trudge. Almost nostalgic, really. Renly had something about a surprise. . . “No, two surprises”. . . “Well, a surprise and a half. . .” The point was, Loras didn't really know what was going on.

At the end of the park he was passing through were some skateboarding ramps. A few kids were hanging out there, looking hot and sticky in their black hoodies that they refused to take off, despite the humidity. A shrimp was talking to an older boy with piercing blue eyes on a BMX. Wait, didn't he know him? 

“. . . play online?” he heard as he drew closer.

“Yeah,” answered the shrimp. He had a really high voice. Maybe it was a girl. 

“I bet you're really good.” Loras couldn't help but stop and stare. He knew he knew that boy, but he couldn't put his finger on it. 

“. . . I'm alright.”

“I saw you play my cousin.”

“Your cousin? How did you know it was me?”

“I recognized your name. It's the same as what you have on your board.”

The short boy/girl flipped up her skateboard with a kick and looked at the bottom. “Nymeria?”

“Yeah. You lost, but it was a good game.”

The smaller kid punched the older one. “I didn't lose! I never lose!”

“You lost this time,” laughed the older boy, punching her back. 

“Shut up, I could beat you in a second!”

“Why don't you prove it then?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is . . .” the older boy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “W-will you. . . play with me?”

“. . . Yeah, alright. . . Hey, what the hell are you looking at?”

Loras jumped and scuttled away hurriedly. Jeez, kids these days. So rude. 

\---

He found Renly on the school's first floor, looking at a bunch of kindergarten scribbles that someone had taped to the walls. There were a lot of people waking around, kids and parents both. Looked like some kind of open house. “Where are Edric and Shireen?” he asked, walking up behind him, taking a wild guess that they were why they were here.

“I don't know. Setting up somewhere. I think they're in a play or something.” He looked Loras up and down. His eyebrow twitched but he didn't say anything.

Loras looked down at himself. He was wearing a cute metalic gold pair of skinny jeans, flip-flops, and a t-shirt with one of those antique floral designs. Perfectly acceptable. He didn't know what Renly was looking at. “What's going on here anyway?” he asked, ignoring the eyebrow.

“Umm, an art show, of some kind. . . Stannis couldn't make it.”

“What, is that the surprise? Surprise babysitting duty?”

“What? No.” Renly smiled. “This is the half-surprise. The real surprise is afterwards.”

“Oh. Good.” 

They made their way over the school auditorium, but Shireen didn't appear to be in any of the scheduled events. Later in the day, some girls were putting on a dance recital (definitely not her), and the choir was preforming around noon. In a few minutes, the kindergarten class was putting on a rendition of The Bear and the Maiden Fair. . . “Featuring half the class as the maiden, and the other half as the bear. . .” read Loras dubiously. Renly sort of wanted to watch it just to see how on earth they were managing that. 

But instead they wondered up the stairs to see if they could find anyone in Shireen's classroom who could tell them where she was. There was an oddly large group of people mulling about outside her door. Parents were giggling, or looking aghast. Children were running in and out, confused. They approached a teacher-looking young lady in glasses. “Hi. I'm Renly Baratheon. Do you know where Shireen and Edric might be?”

“Oh!” the woman gasped, “Are you her father!?”

“Er, no. Her uncle.” He gave Loras a look. Do I look old enough to be her father?

“Ah, yes. Right. That's fine.” She leaned forward and whispered “You've got to help me.”

“What?”

“It's their performance art piece. It's nothing like what they said it was going to be. Look at these parents. They're horrified! What will they think of me? I look like some kind of weird Satanic teacher!”

“What is she doing?” Renly asked with an upward quirk of his mouth. This was looking up to be good. 

“Just look,” she implored, grabbing his arm and dragging him through the crowd. 

Inside the classroom, all the desks had been taken away, and the chairs were turned around to face the back of the room where an empty space had been cleared. In the empty space, a group of students were, um, well, Renly couldn't really tell what they were doing. Some of them were lying on the ground moaning. Some of them were in the process of falling down, screaming and moaning. Others were standing above them, pretending to stab them with broom handles. They were moaning too. Everyone was moaning. The only one who wasn't moaning was Shireen, who has some sort of red fabric taped to her arms and her back like wings, and she was whipping the other students with it and cackling. 

“What is this?” Loras chuckled, hand over his mouth in an ineffective attempt to hide how amused he was. 

“I am Aegon the Conqueror!” Shireen shouted as if in response, “And this is my dragon Balerion! Die, Andals, die!” She smacked a few fallen classmates.

“She said it was going to an interpretive history of Westeros, not a . . . a bloody war scene!” the teacher hissed hysterically.

“It's a commentary on the pain and suffering on which this nation is built,” Edric stated matter-of-factly, even as someone tried to skewer him with a mop. 

“They started half an hour ago with the coming of the First Men and it just keeps getting worse and worse! They said that the. . . the killing part would be over, but they just keep going!”

“Next is the industrial revolution,” Edric informed them. “That will be mass poverty, starvation, and environmental degradation. No killing.”

“Make her stop, make her stop!” cried the teacher, stamping her foot angrily on the linoleum floor. 

“. . . To be fair, she's not the only one doing it,” Renly grinned. 

“Where did they even learn those words?” a woman in the crowd muttered to her husband. 

“This is _so_ going on Youtube,” Loras laughed. He was filming it with his phone. 

“Look, Mr Baratheon,” the teacher whipped out her strictest teacher voice and jabbed an angry finger in his face. “This 'art' is violating our school code of conduct. This was Shireen's idea and I know it. She will either cease this behaviour immediately or face serious consequences.”

“Alright, alright!” Renly held his hands up innocently and backed away. There was no standing up to the teacher voice. “Shireen, cut it out, you're scaring people.”

Shireen looked from her uncle to her teacher, sizing up her options. Eventually she decided that the joke had gone as far as it could go, and she ran out of the room, fire-wings flapping along behind her. He could hear her scream “Valeriaaaa~” faintly as she ran down the hall. 

“Well, I, ah, I'll just bring her home for the rest of the day, shall I?” Renly laughed nervously, backing quickly out of the door. 

They caught up with Shireen outside the auditorium where she had paused to stare curiously inside. Her uncle joined her. 

“. . . Strange,” was all he said after a minute. 

Edric came running up to them, puffing. “Don't leave me behind,” he begged.

Renly snorted. “Yeah, I wish. Come on, let's get you two brats home.” 

\---

It hadn't actually been very long between the time Renly left home and when he returned, bringing with him two over-stimulated children, but he was tired. So tired he almost wanted to lay down on the couch instead of getting back in the car. But not quite. 

“So, what's the real surprise then?” Loras asked once he'd returned and started the engine back up. “Whatever it is, it's going to be hard to top that.” 

“You'll see.”

He drove them back into town, but turned down a road to a different area than they were used to. He pulled over in front of a large, three-story old brick building. “What is this, an old warehouse?” asked Loras doubtfully, peering out the window without making a move to get out. 

“Just come on,” Renly urged him. Loras sighed and relented. 

They went around the side to where a set of stairs brought them up to a door on the second floor of the building. Renly knocked. A middle-aged foreign guy answered. “Baratheon?” he asked in a heavy accent before ushering them inside. There was a long hall with only a few doors in it. Those big slidey industrial-retrofitted doors. The foreign guy used a big iron key to unlock one, opened the door and. . .

It was a loft. Quite a nice one actually. Besides the door and the polished cement floor, it was pretty modern. And it was big. 

Renly grinned like a child. Just let Loras try to find a single thing wrong with this one. He'd even made a check-list to make sure. There was a walk-in closest. The windows weren't too big. They weren't up too high. They walls were a neutral colour. The bathroom wasn't black. 

Loras took his time looking around. He stood and gazed at every wall and feature, nervously wringing his hands. He climbed the open stairs to look at the sun room above. He looked in the fridge and poked at the microwave, all the while saying nothing. He stood in the closet for a whole two minutes before finally coming to a stop in the bedroom. 

“Isn't it perfect?” Renly asked. “Couldn't you see us living here?”

“Beige is so boring,” Loras muttered sullenly. 

Renly calmly wrapped his arms around him, pulling the young man backwards to lean against his chest. Renly rested his chin on Loras' shoulder and together they gazed at the blank beige wall. “First thing we'll do is go to the paint store and take a hundred paint chips of every colour. We'll take a huge stack and see who tries to stop us. Then we'll pick out all our favourite colours and before we even move in, we'll repaint every inch of this place. Every room can be a different colour and every wall a different shade. Even the ceilings. We'll blast Abba and tie handkerchiefs over our hair, and I'll be sure to splash some paint on those ugly shorts your sister bought you.” Loras giggled appreciatively. “And in that corner,” Renly nodded to an empty spot, “we'll sign our names and put our handprints on the wall. And if that breaks our lease and they make us pay a fee when we leave,” Renly shrugged, “who cares. This place will be entirely ours for as long as we're here.”

“I can hear you,” called the landlord from the hallway. 

Renly squeezed him tight. Loras laid his hand over Renly's and squeezed back. Then he bowed his head and sniffled. 

“Loras?”

He gave a small choked sob, folding in on himself even as Renly was holding him.

“What's the matter?” Renly asked, alarmed. 

Loras broke away from his arms and took a few steps, trying to regain his composure. Renly gave him a few moments, worried eyes never leaving his back. Eventually Loras seemed to stop shaking. He stood up straight and took a deep breath, hands on his hips. 

“Loras?” asked Renly again.

“Nu-uh,” he replied, and with that he walked straight out the door.

Renly rushed to follow him. “We've got to go right now, I'm sorry!” he called to the landlord and dashed for the door without stopping to explain further. 

He reached the corridor just in time to see the door at the end bang shut. He rushed towards it and flew down the stairs back to ground level. 

To his relief, Loras was standing by the curb in front of the building. Renly paused to watch him from around the corner. He seemed to have calmed down. He even looked a little bashful, arms crossed protectively as he scuffed his shoe against the pavement. 

Once at his side, Renly wanted to grab him and hold him, but something arrested him. He stood a few feet away, waiting for Loras to look up. Eventually, he did.

“You don't really want to move out, do you?” he asked. “Or, you don't want to move in with me, is that it?”

Loras bit his lip and shook his head. His eyes were still red. “Living with you sounds so perfect it makes my heart ache,” he admitted. 

“Then why do you shoot down every place we look at?”

“Because. . . because I want to be with you, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to live with you. Don't get me wrong, it's just that I'm _young_ , you know? I. . . why can't I just go to school and live in a dormitory next year?”

Renly frowned. “I've been telling you all along that you didn't have to do anything you weren't comfortable with! Why didn't you just say something if all this time you've been wanting to live in a residence?” 

“Because you were so eager,” Loras tried to explain. “And I felt responsible, like if I didn't do it, you would be stuck at home. God, you just never listen to me.”

Renly thought that was unfair. Loras was the one who kept mentioning how Renly had better move out soon and find a place where they could be alone, and it's not like he wouldn't rent his own place if he could. “I was listening,” he retorted. “You said you wanted to move out!”

“Fuck you!” Loras cried. “That's not what I wanted!”

“How am I supposed to know that if you don't tell me? What do you expect me to do, read your mind?”

“You're mean,” Loras spat. “You are so mean.” 

“You are ridiculous. You even look ridiculous.” 

Loras gasped and slapped him. “You're a bully, you know that? I can't live my life with your pressuring me all the time! Oh my god, I need to find somebody my own age.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means. . . it means we should date other people, okay? I'm breaking up with you! Go find someone who doesn't live at home so you can mooch off of them, because that's all your good for!” With that Loras turned and stormed away. 

“Loras, wait!” Renly called after him. “There's no subway in that direction!”

Loras paused for a split second and then kept walking.

“That probably wasn't the right thing to say. . .” Renly thought.


	7. Part Five

By the early hours of the morning, everyone else was asleep and the house was dark and silent. But Renly was still awake, sitting alone and despondent in the kitchen, nursing a tumbler of scotch by the dim glow of a pot light. He couldn't remember ever having felt so dismal. He'd lost his home, he'd lost his boyfriend, what did he have left? 

Faintly, he heard the front door open and close. Stannis must finally be home. The Iron Bank must have given in at last. He expected him to go up to his room, which was why he was surprised when someone flicked on the chandelier and the room was suddenly flooded with light. 

Renly looked up to see his older brother standing awkwardly in the doorway, hand still lingering on the switch. He still had his suit on. Renly could scarcely think of an instance in the past 10 years when he hadn't been wearing a suit. Still, the familiar stony face was a welcome site.

Stannis cleared his throat gruffly. He must have been able to tell that something bad had happened by the way his brother was drinking alone in a dark room. Renly found himself smiling despite everything. Having a heart-to-heart had probably been the last thing Stan would have wanted to do immediately upon returning home from a long trip. 

“Stannis,” Renly started.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, looking pointedly at the glass of scotch. An outsider might have said he was betraying no signs of affection or concern, but Renly knew him too well for that. It was there, in the ever-so-slightly gentler than normal tone, in the way he actually bothered to look at him when he was talking, in the fact that he was standing there at all when he could be upstairs in his bed.

Then again, maybe he was just worried that they'd broken a window or set a fire in the basement or done something else to damage the property while he wasn't there to keep them in line.

“Well,” muttered Renly, “where do I start?” Stannis was probably the least best person he knew to suddenly pour his heart out too, but maybe the scotch was getting to him, because he felt like confessing everything. “I'm in my twenties already and all I've got is. . . nothing. I'm back where I started, sleeping in the same bed I've slept in since I was four, in the same goddamn blue room I've been in since I was born, down the hall from my big brothers' rooms, except that you guys have actually moved on and have kids of your own in those rooms now.” Renly suddenly laughed at his own patheticness, a short guffaw accompanied by a dramatic raise of his arms. “I live in my parents' house, driving a car that someone bought for me, eating your food. . . I can't even support myself, and now I've gone and fucked up the one good thing I had going for me.”

“You got dumped,” Stannis clarified. 

“Yes,” moaned Renly. “I haven't got a single adult relationship left. Even the kids treat me like I'm one of them.”

Silence fell when he finished talking. Renly looked at Stannis intently, waiting for some words of encouragement or even some little look of sympathy. He wasn't surprised when he didn't get one. Stannis probably would have rather heard that he'd crashed his car into the dinning room and broken all the china than deal with _emotions_. He just sat there, looking lost and awkward, just like he'd always done whenever anyone had come to him for comfort. He would probably abruptly get up and leave soon.

Renly frowned angrily at himself when his heart started to clench and his eyes began to sting. It wasn't like he'd been expecting any solace from Stannis, but gods did his stoniness sometimes hurt. It was fine when you had someone else to turn to, like Shireen had her mother, but Renly. . . Renly had never had a mother. Who else was he supposed to go have gone to with a scraped knee or a broken heart? 

Renly scolded himself. He was grown now and he could look after his own feelings. He didn't need any help. He wasn't the 16 year old trying to come out at school or the 11 year old with a broken arm or the 7 year old standing lost by their graveside anymore. If Stannis couldn't help him then, Stannis sure as hell couldn't help him now. 

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Stannis, for once, did not in fact get up and walk away. He didn't even look away or throw out some dismissive comment. Instead he half-smiled and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “There's something I want to show you.”

“I can't do anything about your boyfriend,” Stannis told him wearily as they crept up the dark staircase, “But I think that this might help some of your other problems.” They had come to a door. Renly couldn't see it properly, but he was sure he didn't know what room this was. It wasn't an area of the house he came to much. The master bedroom was around here, and Stannis' study, but the children's hall was on the other side of the house and up a completely different set of stairs. He had no reason to ever be over here. 

Stannis opened the door and flicked on a light. Renly could see now that the room was mostly empty. He followed Stan inside curiously. 

It was a nice room. Large. The floors were a dark hardwood, stained the same rich colour as the crown-moulding. The walls were a subdued, refined colour. Chest-height wooden panelling was arrayed at one end of the room The windows were tall and elegant, flanked by gauzy curtains that would probably billow dramatically if the window was left open on a windy day. There wasn't any furniture besides a few small chests of drawers and some empty bookshelves; nothing at all that hinted at what the room had been used for, except maybe the faint smell of dust.

Renly turned in a circle, surveying everything. There wasn't much to look at. Renly smiled in confusion and looked at Stannis, who had been watching him. “What is it?”

Stannis shrugged. “It wasn't using it for anything. It's just a room where I kept some books and spare rubbish. Old art pieces and antique furniture. I've been working on clearing it out. I sold some of it. I traded one painting with a colleague of mine for that car of yours, actually.”

Renly gulped. Who on earth was the artist that painting?

“The servants moved the last of it out while I was gone. This,” he concluded, “is your new bedroom.”

Renly's eyes widened. “Oh,” he breathed quietly in dawning comprehension. He took a second look around at the room. His room. “Uh, thanks, Stan. Thank you. Thanks for ah, doing that. For me.”

Stannis walked over to the window and stood looking out at the driveway. “You were wrong, you know. You haven't been in that room since you were born. When you were very small, you had a nursery just across the hall from mother and father's room. I put Shireen in there too, when she was born. I had half a mind to keep her there, but. . .” Stannis smiled to himself. Renly smiled too. Their father used to try to make Stan smile all the time, but in the end his daughter was the only one who was any good at it. “Who knew she'd be so loud?”

Renly chuckled. But actually, he knew. Edric was the one to blame for that. Before he had come to live with them, Shireen had been such a well behaved little thing. . . 

“I never meant for you to be stuck in that room, but you don't have to worry about the children anymore. They're forbidden from coming here, and, as far as I know, that's one rule they actually obey.”

Renly sighed with satisfaction. It was a small thing really, switching rooms. Not a real change of anything important at all, and yet somehow he felt better already. He felt more mature just being on this side of the house. Life was still shitty, all things considered, but Stan had done something nice, and that hardly ever happened, so he would appreciate the gesture. . . even if it wouldn't win Loras back. 

Or could it? Come to think of it, this room could solve all their problems. With a private space like this, they could go back to how things used to be, before his old apartment had burnt down. They wouldn't even have to live together at all. Then Renly remembered the things he had said and winced. Maybe, just maybe, if he grovelled and begged. . . 

Suddenly Stannis started talking again. “I let Shireen run free,” he began, mulling over each word before speaking it, “because I wanted her, I wanted you, to be free from responsibilities.”

Really? That was a rather un-Stannis-ish thing to say.

“I had to grow up quickly, to look after you.” Stannis looked him in the eye. “You're still young, Renly,” Stannis turned his gaze away, looking back out at the lawn. “Too young to be worried about a lack of achievements.” 

“Is it just me,” teased Renly playfully, “or are you telling me you don't mind that I live in your house and eat your food and let you pay for the insurance on that ridiculously expensive car you got me?”

Stannis shrugged. “My house? I didn't build this house.”

They both looked together out the window. The long drive wound up the length of the expansive lawn and then cirlcled back to the road. You could see the road clearly from this vantage, despite how far away it was. Heavy unspoken words lay over the pair. Just a vague fact in Renly's mind, but a clear memory in Stannis', of the night their parents had been killed right there, hit by a small truck while turning into their own driveway. 

They stood there for some time, but it seemed like Stannis had said everything he was going to say. Renly eventually left, leaving Stannis to his thoughts, and whatever memories might be playing in the reflections on the glass. Whether they be good or bad Renly couldn't tell, for like always, Stannis' face betrayed nothing. 

Tomorrow, he would call Loras. He would be furious still, and yell at him, and Renly would deserve it, but better to face the fire while it's hot than wait and let Loras get used to the idea of being single again. Maybe nothing he could say would be enough. Maybe Loras really didn't want to be his boyfriend anymore.

Either way, Renly thought he could take it. Even without Loras. He did have a family after all, and a home. Sure, it was mostly a rabble of evil children that could teach the devil a thing or two, but they could be cute. Sometimes.

He was young, handsome, rich, and had a cool job. If nothing else, in all his years of life, Renly Baratheon had accomplished becoming pretty damn desirable. And hey, if things with Loras didn't work out, there was always that hot guy who worked for the catering company across the street. Not the cake decorator, he was most definitely straight, but the guy who did the cheese plates. The Cheese Boy. Yeah, him. He would make a good back up plan. 

Yup, Renly would be okay, because he wasn't alone after all, and he was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am forever disappointed that Renly and Stannis didn't get more canon brother moments ;.;
> 
> Thanks for reading.


	8. Update

Hey everyone and thanks for reading! I suppose I did end this fic in a strange place, didn't I? (I guess my heart just wanted a Renly/Stannis make up scene more than a Renly/Loras one, haha). But fear no more! I've started a sequel! The new fic is called A Life of One's Own and the first bit is up now. I'll try my best to update as quickly as possible. Here's a link:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4050376/chapters/9113164

 

Thank you!


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